How did Staples open my ex wifes pc?

My ex wife took her Dell Insperion laptop to Staples a day ago. She forgot her password and had them work on it. The next day they called and said all is ok. They charged her $40.00 for the service. She has Vista Basic on her laptop. What is it they probably did for $40.00 and how? I'm thinking they just reformatted her OS from the small partition on it. But I sure hope they told her. She is so happy now and they made me look like a crook. I told my ex I could swap out the contents and have her use a external drive. But it would cost around $100.00 for the extra HD and external case. I'm sure if they lost her files she will be pissed but I will not say anything until she notices them missing if that is the case. :cool:

Your guess is as good as ours;)

There are ways of getting around passwords in vista without reformatting.

There are ways around passwords on every Windows system since WinNT.

I hacked into a server once (while all the admins stood around scratching their heads) and reset the password in 1 minute and 37 seconds.

Their jaws hit the floor because they did not expect me to be able to do it, let alone that fast.

I would love to make $40 for under 2 minutes of work.

They probably used a boot CD. I have used Hirens BootCD to fix many computers. It has a password removal tool and that probably what they use. I've done it many time at my work if people refuse to give me their password lol
-BTY

Where would I be able to get Hirens bootCD? I tried a link but it was dead.

Your googlefoo is weak grasshopper.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

I thought we weren't supposed to help with this type of thing.

I don't like to recommend Hirens since it's not all freebies on the disc. It's a policy thing, not a performance issue.

There is one disc in Tech Tools that I keep telling people to download. That has a password tool.

you can also use winternal erd commander also has unlocking tools and password change tools